Definition
Dener seint pere (Law French) is a historical term for Peter's pence — a tribute or levy paid to the papacy by English landholders, historically assessed at one penny per household from land of a certain value. The obligation was a form of ecclesiastical taxation rooted in the relationship between the English crown and Rome, collected periodically and remitted to the Holy See. The term translates literally from Law French as "Saint Peter's money" (dener = penny or money; seint = saint; pere = Peter/father).
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in pre-Reformation English legal and ecclesiastical sources. Researchers working with Anglo-Norman records, monastic cartularies, or early royal legislation will encounter it in contexts tied to land tenure obligations and church-state financial relations. The term drops from practical legal use following the English Reformation, specifically after the Ecclesiastical Licences Act 1533 and the Peter's Pence Act 1534, which formally abolished the payment. Any appearance of the term in post-Reformation sources is likely antiquarian or historical commentary rather than operative legal text.
The Law French form is the one most likely encountered in primary sources. Latin equivalents — denarius sancti Petri or census Petri — appear in ecclesiastical and papal records covering the same obligation, and researchers should cross-reference across both languages when working with pre-Reformation archives. Burrill cites the Laws of William the Conqueror (LL. Gul. Cong.) as a source, which signals the term's presence in the earliest stratum of post-Conquest English legal material.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides a compact entry identifying the term as Law French for "Saint Peter's money" and equating it directly with Peter's pence, citing the Laws of William the Conqueror. This is the extent of coverage in the historical legal dictionary record available here, and it accurately captures the core meaning. What the entry does not address is the administrative complexity behind the levy — disputes over who was obligated to pay, how collection was organized, and how the obligation intersected with feudal land tenure. Researchers needing that depth will find more in ecclesiastical histories and the records of the papal curia than in legal dictionaries, which uniformly treat the term as a gloss rather than a subject of extended analysis.
Jurisdictional Note
This was exclusively an English legal obligation in its common law context, though analogous papal tributes existed in other European kingdoms under different names. It has no continuing legal effect in any modern jurisdiction.